Writing exercises

Absence

Sometimes, the absence of something is as telling as its presence. Something missing, hidden, undeclared, veiled. A person, an object, an emotion. Write a short piece (max 200 wds) around something or someone who isn't there. Any style.

Empathy

Ascribing human characteristics to objects isn't always the best writing technique, but for the purposes of exercising the imagination, answer these questions as though you were the object:
- what is the most secret thing you know?
- what is the worst thing about your job?
- what do you crave?
- where is home?
- what feels good against your skin?
- what are you jealous of?
- what makes you raging mad?
- what would you like to smash?

Show, don't tell

If you try to explain something, you are doing the work for the reader, and not very well. Write from your senses, without comment or abstraction, and readers will conjure up their own images.

Pick a detail in this picture. Write down what you would see, hear, feel, taste, smell, if you were close to the objects – and conjure up an emotion that infuses the description with meaning.

Nuance

My friend in Transylvania speaks fluent - almost bilingual – English and we have great discussions about language. We passed a house painted a ghastly shade of pink and I said drily 'What an extraordinary colour'. Bogdan laughed, understanding completely that I was being cautiously polite while expressing my distaste. That afternoon he commented on something being 'interesting' in the same way that the house was 'extraordinary'. Romanians, he said, had the same ability as the English, the French and Italians to lay waste with compliments. The legacy of centuries of diplomacy.

Your task, then:
Come up with a sentence using the seemingly complimentary words 'extraordinary' or 'interesting' (or similar) where the context alone creates a marked difference in tone and intention.

Cream crackered

When you're completely exhausted, and have a stack of things to do before you can collapse in a heap, the world looks, feels and sounds very different, compared to a world viewed through sparkling clear eyes (not raddled old bloodshot ones with huge bags underneath).
Write a short piece (max 200 wds) from the perspective of a wrung out, knackered individual facing a tedious household chore.

Je ne regrette rien

It's often said that at the end of your life the only things you regret are the things you didn't do.
So here's your chance.
Think back to a time you said 'No'.
This time, say 'Yes!'
Relate the consequences.
(200 wds max)

The next in line

When you're next standing in a queue, take a good look at the person in front of you. Act as their fortune-teller and predict their destiny for that day, based on the clues you have (every detail of appearance, body language, posture, what they're buying).
I suggest you DON'T make your subject aware of your predictions - they may not appreciate it. This is a mental exercise only – unless you are entranced by the possibilities and pursue them (the possibilities, not the person) on paper or screen, later.

Weathering heights

Pick a place you know well – a famous landmark, your house, a favourite landscape – anywhere you like. Take a good look at it in your mind's eye, and make some notes.
Choose two kinds of weather from these options: lashing rain; scorching summer sun; a sunny winter day; blustery wind; gales; hailstones; snow...
In your mind's eye, see how the weather affects every detail. See how differently people behave; notice what they wear, their body language, how they interact with others. Notice animals - starlings and seagulls, dogs on leads.
Write a sentence describing the place – with people or animals in the scene – in your two chosen weather patterns.

Dress sense

What do you wear when you're writing?
- some writers write naked
- some dress as though for business, because it helps them feel like professional writers
- some wear lucky socks (one hopes they have more than one pair)
- some lurch from bed to desk and write in pyjamas
- some wear a favourite hat
- some wear the same outfit every day
- some wear whatever they pick off the floor first

If you struggle to get down to work, or if you've got writers' block.... try wearing something different. The change of routine and/or the change in your self image might make a big difference.

It was an accident, honest

You've cut a finger on some broken glass.
Which finger?
What glass?
Why did it happen?
[200 wds max]

Quick turn

Think of the most boring day you have ever spent in another country.
Take one small detail of that day and change it so that the day becomes one of the most exhilerating you have ever spent.

Point of view 2

Write about magic, from the point of view of the rabbit in the hat.

Point of view

The truth depends on where you're standing.
Write a scene from two points of view: parent and child.
It is a row about music. And volume.
One monologue by the parent, one monologue by the child. [100 words each]

Wherefore art thou Helmut?

This is Juliet's balcony in Verona.
This Juliet was calling down, in German, to her Romeo – who was taking photos from the cobbled courtyard below.
In no more than 200 words, imagine what she's thinking. (NB: 5 senses)

Knock, knock

In 10 minutes, write down:
Who lives behind this door?
What's the name of the street?
Which country?
What building is opposite?
What happens here?
What happened last night?
Who was involved?

Boot

Whose is it?
Where is it?
Where has it been?
Where is it going?
Why?
Write the 200-word first paragraph of an article for a newspaper travel section, based on the answers.

Play with the language, as in this...

... list from the Washington Post's Style section. They asked readers to take any word from the dictionary, alter it by adding, subtracting, or changing one letter, and supply a new definition. Here are some of the winners:

- Intaxication: Euphoria at getting a tax refund, which lasts until you realise it was your money to start with.
- Reintarnation: Coming back to life as a hillbilly.
- Foreploy: Any misrepresentation about yourself for the purpose of getting laid.
- Giraffiti: Vandalism spray-painted very, very high.
- Sarchasm: The gulf between the author of sarcastic wit and the person who doesn't get it.
- Inoculatte: To take coffee intravenously.
- Hipatitis: Terminal coolness.
- Osteopornosis: A degenerate disease.
- Glibido: All talk and no action.
- Dopeler effect: The tendency of stupid ideas to seem smarter when they come at you rapidly.
- Bozone (n.): The substance surrounding stupid people, that stops bright ideas from penetrating.
- Cashtration (n.): The act of buying a house, which renders the subject financially impotent for an indefinite period.
- Decafalon (n.): The grueling event of getting through the day consuming only things that are good for you.
- Arachnoleptic fit (n.): The frantic dance performed just after you've accidentally walked through a spider web.
- Beelzebug (n.): Satan in the form of a mosquito that gets into your bedroom at three in the morning and cannot be cast out.
- Caterpallor (n.): The color you turn after finding half a grub in the fruit you're eating.
- Ignoranus (n): A person who's both stupid and an asshole.